Various methods of protection against robberies were developed over the years. Some of these methods include, forced delays before a safe door can be opened, doors locking when an emergency button is hit, silent alarm button, hidden beneath the desk, actuated to notify the police a robbery is in progress, etc.
Most of these methods impose obstructions on the robbers, and thus may cause the robbers to panic, or enrage them, leading to unnecessary violence or even casualties.
Often, In bank robberies, a robber enters a bank during working hours, finding the cashier sitting in front of an open cash drawer, and forces the cashier, at gun point, to hand over all the money found in that exposed drawer.
Methods and devices limiting the robber's access to his desired catch—money found in teller cabinets or safes, is dangerous, for the frustrated robber may take out his frustration on bank employees or customers. This notion has lead to the introduction of hidden drawers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,997 (Lopez et al.), titled HIDDEN DRAWER ARRANGEMENT FOR BANK TELLER CABINET, there was disclosed a hidden drawer arrangement for a cash transaction cabinet. A drawer is mounted in slide-out fashion in a compartment of a cabinet. A plain face panel on the drawer extends the width of the compartment to have the appearance of an immobile structural element of the cabinet. A latch arrangement is provided on the bottom of the drawer and is hidden by a lower section of the drawer face panel extending below the plane of the drawer bottom.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,792 (Price et al.), titled CASH REGISTER SECURITY SYSTEM, disclosed a cash register security system having a first latch normally adapted to engage and securely hold within a cash register a false drawer, a release device connected to the first latch for releasing the first latch from engaging and holding the false drawer within the cash register, a second latch adapted to engage and hold within the cash register a cash drawer, the second latch normally being in disengagement with the cash drawer, a locking device connected to the second latch for locking the second latch in engagement with the cash drawer and holding the cash drawer within the cash register, an alarm circuit connected to the release device and the locking device and an alarm switch connected to the alarm circuit for operating the alarm circuit and activating the release device and the locking device whereby the cash drawer is locked within the cash register and only the false drawer may be ejected from the cash register after the alarm switch is operated. A police silent alarm, a plurality of cameras and a flashing beacon also are connected to and operated by the alarm switch. This patent does not describe the physical properties of the drawer chest, but rather discloses an electronic scheme.
In FR Pat. 2535573 (Diemert et al.) there was disclosed a hidden drawer that normally nests within the drawer cabinet, and upon engagement using a hidden a cable, the hidden drawer is revealed, allowing access to its content.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,390,361 (Gund) disclosed a method of protecting an active cash drawer from robbery comprising the following steps: housing the active cash drawer together with an emergency cash drawer in a housing having a frontal opening to accommodate the opening of a cash drawer; arranging for the active cash drawer to open through the frontal opening in the housing to facilitate routine cash transactions; generating an alarm signal in the event of a robbery and arranging for the emergency cash drawer to open instead of the active cash drawer subsequent to the alarm signal. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the frontal opening is generally the height of a cash drawer and the cash drawers vertically shift upwards within the housing subsequent to the alarm signal so that the active cash drawer is aligned behind the frontal opening prior to the alarm signal and the emergency cash drawer is in alignment with the frontal opening subsequent thereto.
Diemert and Lopez both deal with a hidden drawer arrangement, that can be used for concealing valuables etc., so that the latter may be saved, but the hidden drawer merely provides a concealed space for use. Price and Gund describe decoy drawers containing little sums of money, that are to be opened during robbery, aimed at fooling the robber to think the decoy drawer is the real operating drawer, and thus settle for the money found there, believing no more money can be stolen.
It is the purpose of the present invention to provide a novel protected cabinet for bank tellers or the like, having a normally operated drawer that would contain the sums of money required for the normal operation of the teller, and a decoy drawer that in the event of a robbery substitutes the normal drawer, leading the robber to believe the decoy drawer is in fact the normal drawer, and thus make do with what is found in it
Other advantages and objects of the present invention will be appreciated after reading the present specification and viewing the accompanying drawings.